The Saints benched left tackle Charles Brown during last Sunday’s loss to the Rams after it became clear he wasn’t going to be able to offer up much legal resistance to Rams defensive end Robert Quinn.

Coach Sean Payton explained the decision on Sunday by saying he’d seen enough of Brown, but that may not preclude a return to the lineup in Week 16. On Monday, Payton wouldn’t say whether or not there would be a more permanent change and that Brown wasn’t the only player to fall short of expectations in St. Louis.

Another one was kicker Garrett Hartley, who had a field goal blocked early in the game before shanking one badly late in the game. The Saints looked at other kickers a few weeks ago, but stuck with Hartley. Payton would only say Monday that they are considering their options at kicker and everywhere else.

“I think we are looking closely at every element,” Payton said, via the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “I told the team in the team meeting we are looking closely at each aspect of this team. I just think it’s important for us to do that, whether it’s a tackle position or whether it’s a player on defense. The one thing I know I don’t want to do is repeat the process over and over again.”

It’s not an ideal situation to have a couple of positions in turmoil ahead of a date with the Panthers that will go a long way toward deciding the NFC South champion, but it is one that the Saints will have to deal with while also trying to solve their road woes.

Brown should be cut, put the rookie Armstead out there and see what the kid can do. It can’t get much worse. As for Hartley, what do you do with the kid? One week he’s 4 for 4 two weeks later he misses two. When we brought other kickers in he was perfect for two weeks in a row. Maybe we should keep another kicker on roster to keep his head in the game, it appears he can only perform well when there’s competition. Then again I’m all for Morstead handling all of the kicking duties, dudes got a leg.

Hartley must have naked pictures of the coach, GM and the owner because this clown should have never been hired in the first place. He got hurt his first year in the league and John Casey filled in for him and played “lights out”. Hartley comes back and they fire Casey and Hartley stinks up the place and not much has changed since then. The Saints score 50 touchdowns every year and any kicker can make those and put up stats. When it matters, Hartley has continued to kill them. Time to go.

Unfortunately both tackles aren’t getting it done. The Saints don’t have to worry as much about the tackle as some other teams because Brees tends to want to step up more, but Brown and Strief are simply not living up to even those standards. Brown has been abused this year, Strief has struggled with players like Cliff Avril and Justin Houston last year, and we can’t run off the tackles for crap.

Jimmy Graham is such a beast downfield but I really think we need to get him to block more even if he’s not great at it. We send in Ben Watson to do that on most run plays but that’s a big predictable telegraph that we’re running it. Between Sproles, Colston, Moore and Meachem we can still send deep threats.